Keith Richards to publish children’s book. Really.

Keith Richards, shown performing last April, will be back in bookstores with a children’s book in September (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, file)

I know this sounds like the start of a joke, but did you hear that Keith Richards is going to publish a children’s book?

It’s true: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers announced today that it will publish a picture book titled “Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar” in hardcover and as an E-book on Sept. 9.

The book will include illustrations by the Rolling Stone’s daughter, Theodora Richards. The book was written with Barnaby Harris and Bill Shapiro inspired by a memory from Richards’ childhood included in his best-selling memoir, “Life.”

In the book, Richards talks about being introduced to music by his grandfather, Theodore Augustus Dupree, known as “Gus,” who was in a jazz band. Theodora is named after him.

“I have just become a grandfather for the fifth time,”Richards said in a statement from the publisher, “so I know what I’m talking about. “The…special bond between kids and grandparents is unique and should be treasured. This is the story of one of those magical moments. May I be as great a grandfather as Gus was to me.”

Too bad Norman Rockwell isn’t still around to depict kindly Grampa Keith dandling a drooling, cooing tot on his knee as he reads them a charming bed time story.